Has the normalizing of pedophilia begun?

Do people who rape children, or fantasize about sexually abusing them, deserve sympathy – because they were born with the brains of pedophiles?

That’s the question a prominent scientist and a well-known anchor at CNN have asked in the wake of the recent Jerry Sandusky scandal.

CNN recently featured a story by James Cantor, a homosexual psychologist and scientist at the Sexual Behaviors Clinic of the Center for Addiction and Mental Health who serves as associate professor of psychiatry at the University of Toronto.

“It appears that one can be born with a brain predisposed to experience sexual arousal in response to children,” he wrote in his CNN piece.

He continued, “Cases of child molestation that involve long strings of victims over the course of years illustrate what can happen when someone gives in to, or outright indulges, his sexual interests, regardless of its potential damage on others. It is those cases that dominate headlines and provoke revulsion toward pedophiles.

“But they are rare. An untold number of cases merit sympathy.

“The science suggests that they are people who, through no fault of their own, were born with a sex drive that they must continuously resist, without exception, throughout their entire lives. Little if any assistance is ever available for them.”

According to the American Psychological Association, Cantor is passionate about the neurological underpinnings of sexual behavior and jokes, “I feel lucky to have found a way to stimulate my brain intellectually by indulging myself in thinking about sex all the time.”

He has studied the brains of male pedophiles using magnetic resonance imaging. Cantor explained his findings:

“Pedophilic men have significantly less white matter, which is the connective tissue that is responsible for communication between different regions in the brain. Pedophiles perform more poorly on various tests of brain function, tend to be shorter in height and are three times more likely to be left-handed or ambidextrous (characteristics that are observable before birth). Although nonbiological features may yet turn up to be relevant, it is difficult, if not impossible, to explain the research findings without there being a strong role of biology.”

He explains, from his experience with such individuals, that pedophiles act on their sexual urges and molest children “when they feel the most desperate.”

“Yet, much of what society does has been to increase rather than decrease their desperation,” he wrote.

In the U.S., Cantor notes, the focus tends to be on punishments invoked after sex abuse has taken place – rather than implementing social policies aimed at prevention.

“If it is the brain’s wiring that ultimately determines who will go on to develop pedophilia, can we detect it early enough to interrupt the process?” he asks. “Until we uncover more information, we will do more good by making it easier for pedophiles to come in for help rather than force them into solitary secrecy.”

Meanwhile, a CNN anchor chimed in to express sympathy for Sandusky, who was found guilty on 45 of 48 child sex-abuse charges after he molested at least 10 boys over a period of 15 years.

“I know people are going to send me a lot of hate mail for this. I’ve never been one to take glee in anyone’s demise, and when I saw Jerry Sandusky walk out in handcuffs, I did kind of feel a bit sorry for him, even though I know the jury found him to do some horrific things, I was like ‘His life is over.’ All of these young boys, it was terrible for them as well. There are no winners.”

Meanwhile, some experts warn of a highly controversial campaign in recent years that seeks to sympathize with – and even normalize – pedophilia.

Just last year, Dr. Judith Reisman, the principal expert investigator for a U.S. Justice Department study on child sex abuse, said pedophilia advocates are using the same strategy that was successfully employed to make homosexuality a classroom subject for small children in the nation’s public schools.

As WND reported, Reisman attended a symposium held by the “minor-attracted people” advocacy group B4U-ACT to disseminate “accurate information” on the position that pedophilia is just one more alternative sexual orientation.

“If a foreign country came in and did this to our nation, the nation would be outraged,” Reisman said about the B4U-Act event, also attended by J. Matt Barber, vice president of Liberty Counsel Action.

The speakers urged the removal of pedophilia from the American Psychiatric Association’s list of mental defects in its Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.

Reisman explained the same strategy was used by homosexual activists in the 1970s when same-sex attractions were removed from the APA’s list of disorders. Eventually, the legalization of “gay marriage,” the mandatory homosexuality lessons in public schools and the policy of allowing open homosexuality in the U.S. military resulted.

“Dr. John Sadler (University of Texas) argued that diagnostic criteria for mental disorders should not be based on concepts of vice since such concepts are subject to shifting social attitudes and doing so diverts mental-health professions from their role as healers,” the B4U-ACT organization said in a report about its symposium in Baltimore.

Another celebrity was Fred Berlin of Johns Hopkins who argued in favor of “acceptance of and compassion for people who are attracted to minors,” the report continued.

The report pointedly referred to “minor-attracted people” in reference to pedophiles and explained that the concerns can be resolved with “accurate information.” Richard Kramer, who represented B4U-ACT at the event, contended listing pedophilia as a disorder stigmatizes the “victims” of the lifestyle choice.

According to Barber, conference speakers said the Diagnostic Manual should “focus on the needs” of the pedophile and should have “a minimal focus on social control” rather than a focus on the “need to protect children.”

Barber, an ardent advocate for Judeo-Christian values and the traditional family, told WND the symposium was “the North American Man-Boy Love Association all dolled up and dressed in the credible language of the elitist Ph.Ds.”

NAMBLA openly advocates the legalization of sex between adults and children.

“This is a bunch of morally relative, highly educated people in the mental health community who are trying to achieve the ultimate in tolerance,” Barber said. “These are the people who are the disciples of Alfred Kinsey.”

The concept of “wrong” should not be applied to “minor-attracted persons.”

“Children are not inherently unable to consent” to sex with an adult.

“An adult’s desire to have sex with children is ‘normative.'”

And the Diagnostic Manual “ignores that pedophiles ‘have feelings of love and romance for children’ the same way adult heterosexuals have for each other.”

Barber noted that self-described “gay activist” and speaker Jacob Breslow said it is proper for children to be “the object of our attraction.” Breslow said pedophiles shouldn’t need to get consent from a child to have sex any more than they would get consent from a shoe to wear it, according to Barber.

Berlin previously reported that 67 percent of pedophiles and child molesters relapse after being treated for the disorder. But the few who didn’t were tracked for a period of only two years, and any recidivism after that was unreported. And Reisman noted that even his success “stories” are anonymous and “wholly unverified.”

In a related commentary on WND, Reisman said, “The APA path to pedophile norms follows the success of the homosexual anarchy campaign. Arguably, the pedophile media lobby directed the passionate boy-boy kisses on the TV series ‘Glee,’ to enable fellow ‘minor-attracted persons’ to increasingly be seen as a boy’s sex ‘friend.’

“B4U-ACT claims to ‘help mental health professionals learn more about attraction to minors and to consider the effects of stereotyping, stigma, and fear.’ While the group claimed they want to teach pedophiles ‘how to live life fully and stay within the law,’ no one suggested how to stop their child lust or molestation,” she wrote.